Sympathy
by Phoenix Boy
Summary: Tezuka goes to visit Yukimura after the Kantou tournament. Nationals is around the corner and they might finally meet in an official match. 4th in the Promises arc.


-1"Seiichi?"

He looked up from his book at the soft sound of his mother's voice as she looked around the door to see if he was awake. Being more or less confined to his bed wasn't doing anything for his sleeping habits and the smallest bit of exercise seemed to exhaust him.

"Mm?"

"One of your friends has come by; are you up to seeing him?"

Seiichi smiled and put down the book. To be entirely honest, he'd be delighted to have to deal with Atobe at this point, if only for the entertainment.

"Who is it?"

She looked vaguely puzzled.

"A tennis player - he's got his racket bag with him - but not one I recognise."

Not one of the Rikkai regulars then: they'd been in and out of the house almost as often as he himself had over the past two years. While he'd been in hospital, they'd apparently still been around, helping out with the chores in his absence.

"I imagine you know him: he's tall, maybe as tall as Sanada-kun, with glasses and brown hair."

"I think I know who it is."

"I'll send him up then. Would you like some tea?"

Seiichi straightened his bed up a little. While he didn't mind Genichirou and Renji seeing him slobbing around instead of training or working, he'd rather Tezuka didn't, whether his current state was the doctor's orders or not.

A genuine smile - not the reassuring one he'd perfected over the last year - spread over his face when his guess was confirmed. Tezuka looked much the same as ever though maybe….

"Tezuka, have you grown again?" he demanded, he asked, trying to eye up whether Tezuka loomed more than Genichirou in the doorway. Tezuka flushed slightly.

"I think so, it's been a while since I last saw you. I would have visited sooner but…"

"I know. You had your own rehabilitation to think of. Hyotei's Atobe was here yesterday."

"What for?"

"Something about since Seigaku had had the audacity to defeat Hyotei, you were going to win Nationals if 'ore-sama' had to send his personal cheering squad or not, so I shouldn't get my hopes up."

"I'd rather do without. I'm not Atobe. It was polite of him to come, even if he can't express himself well."

Tezuka looked at his admittedly frail state for a long moment and then asked the question that even the rest of his own team had been too shy to ask.

"So Seiichi, are you going to be ready for Nationals?"

Seiichi laughed.

"At least I can count on you to be as blunt as ever. The doctors think it's possible, at least by the end of Nationals, that I'll be allowed to play. I can count on the others to get us that far, I think. It won't be my ideal form but more than I'd really dared to hope before. Yourself? Genichirou said you looked better but still limited at the Invitational."

Teuzka frowned slightly.

"I'll be playing at the National level but beyond that it's hard to tell. After two years of limiting myself, I'm short of a lot of the training I'd like."

"That makes two of us," Seiichi replied, himself slightly bitter. "For the two supposedly best players in junior high tennis, we have a lamentable lack of match experience between us in the past couple of years. Even when we could be on the line-up, the chances of our matches reaching Singles 1 have always been slim. At this rate even Akaya will be beating me without breaking a sweat."

At that point, Seiichi's mother appeared with a tray for them. Tezuka automatically rose to take it from her, thanking her politely with the calm that made so many people underestimate him, much as Seiichi's looks made people underestimate him.

"What are you thinking about?"

Seiichi jumped.

"Seiichi?

"Aa, sorry, lost in thought. I was just thinking about the Invitational in our first year. Things have changed quite a bit from then. As I remember it, you were the shortest one there by a full 4.5cm."

Tezuka sighed and passed him his tea with a long suffering look.

"I wonder if you'll ever stop reminding me about that. You're the one who was sensitive about his height, not me."

"I told Akaya-kun and he didn't believe me."

"Your protégé is possibly the only player in Kantou with a worse attitude than my brat."

They shared a look of complete understanding for a moment.

"When did you meet Akaya, then? I know he watched your match with Atobe but I wouldn't have thought you'd have stopped to talk to him."

"He turned up at Seigaku months ago, claiming to be scouting."

"You bought that?"

"I think the juniors were the only ones who did, though some of the others were a little annoyed by his audacity. Rikkai's data master is easily as competent as ours and even if he couldn't make it, I wouldn't have thought Kirihara would be Sanada's choice for a substitute." 

Seiichi laughed. He had missed Tezuka's wry sense of humour. It was only a shame that it had taken him most of that first week at the training camp to discover it, before which he'd thought Tezuka had less personality than a brick wall.

"Scouts don't often beg the team captain for a match, either."

"He didn't?" Seiichi demanded, not impressed in the least, and gave up the pretence that he was completely unaware of what his team had been up to. "That wasn't in the report I got from Genichirou."

"I turned him down, of course. Besides the fact that I was banned from hard matches at that point, I don't think he was at the point yet where he'd learn from such a match."

"You're style is quite deceptively simple looking. I've always wondered what it would be like to play in a competition match these days. We've both come a long way since the last time and that was technically informal anyway."

"It's unlikely to happen this year," Tezuka said, continuing at Seiichi's surprised look. "With my current condition, Echizen or Fuji is likely to be a better choice for Singles 1 and I can't imagine you playing anything else."

"I saw his match with Genichirou on tape." 

"As did I - Oishi sent me a tape. Sanada looked somewhat distracted compared to his usual but it was a good game."

"It's no excuse for losing - and he won't at Nationals so take that as a warning. You know, he's walking around calling him 'Tezuka's brat'. Your freshman played a remarkable match. I don't believe I've ever seen Muga no Kyouchi used quite so skilfully so early before. It even took us a while to reach that stage."

"Atobe calls him something similar. I do wonder why everyone keeps linking him to me."

Seiichi laughed. How like Tezuka to be able to analyse everyone and everything except himself.

"That match, the only other person who loses himself in a match to quite that extent is you. The whole thing was classic Tezuka, though you tend to be a bit more subtle about it. I'm told that the last time Echizen played a match like that one was immediately after your match with Atobe, which was so completely like you, by the way, that I'm amazed that it shocked so many people."

"Most people can't read my tennis as well as you can," Tezuka said, looking slightly embarrassed. Really, he was fun to tease. Tezuka quickly tried to shift the conversation back to the previous topic. "Echizen is doing well but he still has a long way to go."

"Seigaku's next captain?" 

"Maybe. I despair of any of the younger ones having the maturity to lead the team next year."

"It's hard to believe now what we were doing at their age, ne?"

"Aa."

"Your Golden Pair has progressed hugely this year."

"And your doubles is as overwhelming as ever. Your doubles 1 pair…"

"They're a little eccentric," Seiichi conceded with a smile. "Your team is hardly any more normal though."

Tezuka made to put down his cup of tea as they heard voices downstairs, though neither of them had heard a doorbell. Seiichi cocked his head.

"Renji and probably Genichirou. They've been looking after the garden for me so they have a set of keys. You might as well stay and finish your tea."

Tezuka settled down again, a little uncertain. Their friendship had always been something of a secret, not difficult given how few times they'd been able to arrange to meet after sharing a room at the Invitational two years previously. He tensed as he heard the clatter of feet on the stairs.

Genichirou froze in the doorway.

"Gen-kun, what's up?" Renji demanded from behind, propelling him forwards into the room. He too stopped short, though his face didn't sink to the slack-jawed look Genichirou sported. "Tezuka-san, I hadn't thought to see you here. We can come back later, if you'd prefer Seiichi?"

"No need, we were just catching up. I haven't told you about Renji's theories about what would happen if we ever met in a match yet, have I Tezuka?"

Tezuka shook his head slightly, though the question had been rhetorical. Renji was staring out of the window from his accustomed armchair beside it as if the familiar garden held deep fascination for him. Genichirou smiled and took his normal perch at the end of Seiichi's bed.

"It must have been just before the Invitational and the team was over here having what Marui calls a 'good luck party'."

Genichirou snorted. "He just wanted an excuse to bring a cake."

"True enough. We were discussing which people we'd like to play most at Nationals and when I was recovered and surprisingly enough your name came up. I have to say Tezuka, you don't seem to have impressed Akaya much."

"I wasn't particularly inclined to."

"He was his normal charming self, I see," Genichirou said, sounding mildly disapproving but not surprised.

Seiichi was smiling again.

"Really, Tezuka?"

"It was more that I wanted to play him but couldn't," Tezuka admitted, topping up his tea to avoid looking at any of the others. It was bad enough that Seiichi could read him well enough to tell that but it was a little strange to admit it in front of Seiichi's best friends. Still, he'd never lied to him yet.

"A bit of both, I suspect," Seiichi conceded. "Anyway, Akaya couldn't understand why we were so keen to play you. Don't look so embarrassed about it! It's not as if you and Fuji aren't equally keen to play us. Renji was struggling to explain. Ne, Renji? You probably phrase it better than me."

Renji sighed and gave in.

"Akaya has played sufficient times against Seiichi to understand when I compared him to an unstoppable force."

"That does describe your play style rather well," Tezuka pointed out, wondering exactly why it amused Seiichi so much. "Though apparently you never told them about the time you met Yamato-buchou. I didn't think I'd ever see you speechless like that."

"It's when he started comparing you to the classic 'unmoveable object' that the implications for our match became rather earth-shattering, in a literal way," Seiichi pointed out, enjoying this far too much.

"It got the point across," Renji said briefly, unpacking the contents of a folder onto Seiichi's desk. "These are the training reports from the last two weeks, including the ones Yagyuu complied when we were at the Invitational."

"I had better get moving or I'll miss the Tokyo train," Tezuka said, rising more resolutely this time. "There's more than one person on my team who'd be annoyed if I was late for team-bonding at Kawamura Sushi. Speaking of which, Yanagi-kun, before you describe me as an unmoveable object, I'd do a little more research into Fuji Syuusuke and possibly Echizen Ryoma. I'll see you at Nationals, Seiichi. This time you won't be getting such an easy time of it."

"Echizen-kun, is it, Tezuka? I'll be looking forward to it. We'll see you in the finals, then."

"Aa." Tezuka nodded politely to Genichirou and Renji.

"Tezuka," Genichirou said suddenly.

Tezuka stopped in the doorway, turning to look back over his shoulder.

"At the Nationals, I'll be waiting."

"Of course," Tezuka replied, a look of satisfaction on his face. "Though it all depends on the line up."

Tezuka showed himself out, picking up his tennis bag from the floor as he went. They waited in silence until they him thanking Seiichi's mother for the tea and heard the front door close before they started asking questions.

"Tezuka was just wishing us well for the Nationals."

"He called you Seiichi," Renji pointed out. Trust Renji to have spotted that.

"And I'd call him Kunimitsu if it weren't such a mouthful. He reacts to Mitsu-kun about as well as Genichirou reacts to Gen-kun. You did know that we shared a room at the Invitational that first year, didn't you?"

"Aa," Genichirou agreed, looking a little concerned. "But that doesn't mean you were still on speaking terms. I assure that I'm not with Atobe."

Seiichi laughed and reached over to steal Genichirou's cap. Tezuka understood him like no one else could but he'd be hopeless without these two.

"Anyway, Genichirou, it looks like you might get to meet Tezuka at Nationals, whatever he was saying."

Renji looked up, surprised.

"Why? They're current pattern seems to hold with Tezuka in Singles 1 and Echizen taking one of the other slots. That's how they're playing in their first match - they've submitted the lists already."

"Tezuka isn't completely satisfied with his recent lack of training. I'd be inclined to say that he might put himself in Singles 2 and Echizen or Fuji in Singles 1, in which case, assuming my recovery by that time, he'd almost certainly be Genichirou's to deal with."

"I'll look forward to it."

"He can trust his team when the match gets to its climax just as I can trust you to get us to finals without me playing."

"Seiichi, could we possibly get back to the training menus for next week?"


End file.
